Is University just a kike scam

Is university a scam or will it really get me much further ahead in life?

I'm a 19 year old Canadian here and I'm deciding whether or not I should spend over $60,000 on 4 years of university (Saskatchewan) or $12,000 on 2 years at a technical college (SAIT). I'm going for mechanical engineering and I want to hear your thoughts on it. I've already been accepted to University of Saskatchewan for mechanical engineering but I have put it on hold for the year. I still have the option of backing out and going to 2 years at SAIT instead. My family is kind of split half and half on the issue. We have a few family friends that are oil engineering executives and both of them have said that experience is much more important and nobody really gives a shit if you just go to tech college for 2 years. My uncle works in mortgages and says many of the engineering tech guys he's seen have made well over $500k a year and are happy they didn't pursue full degrees. The upside to only doing 2 years at tech college is that I would have 2 more years of experience and money earned compared to a 4 year uni grad.

I want to eventually end up in the automotive racing, hopefully motorbikes and engineering on a team. Will I be able to do that with only a tech college diploma? The $48,000 difference is very appealing, since I wouldn't have any debt coming out of a tech college compared to university.

Any opinions on this Veeky Forums? surely some of you had to have gone through something similair to this and can give me some insight.

More than likely, when you get out of Uni you'll be fucking useless to the company and they'll have to form you all over again. The thing is you will get to set foot in the company because they know you have solid basis and are able to work hard. Succeeding without completing a degree was easier a few decades ago when everybody else did not have one already.

@Fuzzy_Logic(Former) Sask bro here. Don't do the 2 year tech from SIAT. My friend did this. You'll just end up doing all of the work while the "real" engineer just signs off on your work and takes home the big money.

500k/yearYeah right. Just think about it... no company is going to pay a SIAT diploma grad $500k/year. How does could a company even justify that financially?

It's 2 more years for the full degree, you can always take a year off and make some money in between. Plus with the degree you have further graduate options available to you if you decide you hate engineering down the line.

15 months ago

VisualMaster

It really depends.

a. Working for someone else will never make you financially independentb. University prepares you to work for someone elsec. If you wish to start your own business to get rich you don't need university

But most people do not wish to start a business. They find it easier to just follow the predefined path, school, without giving it a single thought. And for them university is perfect.

15 months ago

Need_TLC

If you're going to school, you go to community college and do a 2-year progam for like 1-2k a semester. Do not go to a 4-year and pay 10k a semester. If you don't want to do school, just join the military. Military is a good life. You can try military for 4 years and get benefits which give you free schooling as well. Try both or be a wagecuck, or get lucky.

You don't "start" an engineering business on your own with no formation or experience, this is just retarded. Money and time flushed down the drain, uni is probably cheaper.

Also, working for someone else is a mean to an end, both parties profit from this.

How would you even find customers/investors to trust you when you have no educational background, no experience, just your wits? Looks to me you're the one who doesnt think that much

15 months ago

Skullbone

@Fuzzy_Logici'd say just do university unless you are super passionate about academics. i took a 3 year program in electrical engineering at a technical college because it seemed like something that would lead to employment opportunities. it was $1500/semester at the time (ontario, early 00's) and they found you co-op jobs. i make $90k/year base now and know people who have degrees and make the same. i work alongside people who have BA's and had to go back to technical college to make themselves employable. seven fucking years of post-secondary education lol! i've seen people who have 2 years of college get promoted over everyone else. i've seen people with engineering degrees get demoted because theyre too fucking sperged out to do their simple job. if you are intellectually curious, you can always educate yourself after work by reading Veeky Forums. i was always a mediocre student myself. when i was a teenager, i ate enough acid and magic mushrooms to kill a whale.

15 months ago

Evilember

@kizzmybuttTHIS. Forget the money: Don't waste you fucking time unless you decide to go for engineering or med school.

15 months ago

Sir_Gallonhead

@Fuzzy_LogicNAIT grad here, go to university, with the oil economy in the shitter NAIT and SAIT grads are fucked

A lot of the engineering technology programs barely even have a 50% employment rate now

15 months ago

King_Martha

@Fuzzy_LogicIf you want to do an engineering job it will be much easier to get it with an engineering degree. Getting your foot in the door with a tech degree is going to be very difficult.

Source: I've got a 2 year degree from SAIT, and our engineering dept only interviews engineers.

Also I think you are in the wrong country for motorbike racing but I don't know shit about it.

15 months ago

Soft_member

@Sir_GallonheadAlthough if you're into automotive shit it wouldn't really matter

@Playboyize In that case go to university, nobody outside of Western Canada is going to care about a SAIT diploma

Also check your American citizenship privilege

15 months ago

Flameblow

@Fuzzy_Logicin IT and cs, not so much. It's a good choice to have some amount of college, even if it's 'just' community college. If you are fresh out of school and want to go into cs or it and aren't already working in that industry or can't easily break into it..I'd suggest college. I went to community college and make 70k after two years with my AS...not bad at all. I'm certain you can do better as a software dev. Consider community or technical college, even if it's just to earn some credits towards a bachelor's degree

15 months ago

TurtleCat

@Fuzzy_LogicYes, yes it is. If you didn't learn a skill early, you fucked up and inadvertently set yourself up to be in this position.

In what way am I wrong about networking with professors, alumni and your fellow students being beneficial?

15 months ago

haveahappyday

Hey OP.

Student Advisor user here, who works in a degree transfer office at a college in Ontario.

I help students exactly in your kind of situation.

I don't know what the education game is like in Saskatchewan. But I know for Ontario students in engineering technician/technology programs...they get fucked if they want to transfer afterward to a Bachelor of Engineering program. The reason why is because they get ZERO credit for their college courses. So they have to start year one in an Engineering Bachelors program to get their P Eng.

Unless you want to go to Lakehead University in bumfuck thunder bay. Those guys give you 2 years of transfer credit for having a 3 year engineering technology diploma. its honestly not a bad deal, but the location is.

My honest advice, go to Memorial University for Mechanical Engineering. They have the cheapest tuition in Canada, and they're a well respected school.

15 months ago

Harmless_Venom

@GigastrengthHe never said anything about an engineering business.How do you find customers/investors to trust you when you have no educational background/experience.

Anyone can make a website/e - commerce store, and read up on forums like bhw to try to refine their techniques. E commerce is a valid way of making money today.

15 months ago

Skullbone

@GigastrengthA glorified freelance job isn't really a business.You need to be able to sell large volumes regardless of your time (selling/trading/mass production) or sell the fruits of your labour multiple times (digital products / courses / events).

I studied law and did nothing with my degree. During university I set up a business importing specific goods, which I now sell to stores (and to a lesser extend consumers). And nobody ever asked anything about my degree.

A friend of mine sells energy drinks he thought of himself to shops and some factory produces. He studied marketing. Nobody ever asked anything about his degree. It's just a mix of things he'd drink before going to the gym.

If I had to choose between doing university again or spending 60k dollars and 4 years setting up multiple businesses until one eventually succeeded I know what I'd do.

15 months ago

Ignoramus

@Fuzzy_LogicPersonally, if you are willing to move to where jobs are, you should go for it. It will pay off.

15 months ago

MPmaster

@GigastrengthIf you didn't network or utilize the career resources at your university and bitch about how university is a scam, just KYS.

Mechanical engineering graduate from UBC here. Unemployed for a little over a year. If you do go into engineering go into civil, forget the "follow your passion" scam. Research the number of mechanical engineering job postings on indeed and compare them to civil engineering. All the engineering jobs on vancover.ca are civil.

Now onto the matter of universities. They are defiantly a kike scam. You don't learn jack shit except for acing tests so when you graduate you actually have 0 useful skills for the job. I wish I took the degree at some technical school like BCIT, they have actually developed a great reputation that surpasses UBC (but only in bc).

Furthermore, the only useful course we've taken was called, fundamentals of engineering design, which was completely rushed. They fucking rushed the only thing the industry demands from new graduates: knowing how to use solidworks proficiently. At the same time they forced us to take a retarded course called law and ethics which is completely useless until you decide to get your p.eng after 4+ years of work experience.

The hardest part about the degree was how much they were forcing groupwork down our throat. 3-4 classes out of 6 per semester had group projects. Enjoy either doing everyone's work, having to deal with a control freak, being that control freak, or having one keener do all the work and learn nothing as a result. Also co sider that Universities in Canada are too feminized, this means your assignments, group work, weigh significantly more (~30%, 10% RESPECTIVELY) than a university in Australia for example whereally 90% of your grade comes from your final exam. This makes universities very stressful as 30-40% of your mark depends on others. I'm not sure if technical colleges better in that respect but it is something I would research before picking a school. The less group work the better.

15 months ago

lostmypassword

@Fuzzy_LogicThere were some funny moments though that reflected how badly the education we received actually was. We were asked to program microcontroller but none of us has a clue except for this one guy who transferred from a technical college. So the entire class pretty much plagerised the same code off that one student. The professor was pissed but when the entire class cheats he can't do shit about it.

Also this:You have to intern to stand a chance in the job market.Getting an internship depends on your marks in your first, or second year.grades too low=can't intern=fucked with no experience when you graduate.If your overall grade is below a 3.0 GPA you won't even get looked at with big corporations like husky or she'll. So don't fall sick during your final exams like I did.

Do your research, don't believe the rosy picture everyone paints you about being an engineer. I know several friends that couldn't get a job and retards that did due to connections or whatever. I also have a friend that is working in california for 15/hr as a mechanical engineer.

Go to SAIT or NAIT and major in petroleum engineering technology, a 2 year diploma. Get hired on with a wire lining company in the oil patch as an MWD tech (measurement while drilling) and make $200k by your second year in. If I was 18 again it's what I would have done. I know a guy that did it, was making cash hand over fist. The degree also transfers into a 4 year program if you want a bachelors in it to go on to other things in the industry, but most MWDs are hired with a 'two year technical diploma' preferred.

15 months ago

Inmate

@5mileysAlso working a few rotations rough necking on an oil rig will look good because it will show you're familiar with the environment. You can get hired doing rig work with no experience on the spot. It's how I got hired doing it by I got in just before the oil crash so it was short lived.

15 months ago

lostmypassword

Of course its a kike scam.

If you enjoy working for 60 hours a week for the next 50 years of your life go ahead faggot.Why in gods name would anyone WILLINGLY choose that?

Build a business, duplicate yourself either through other entrepreneurs or employees, and become rich.Serve the masses, live with the classes.

15 months ago

hairygrape

@haveahappydayNAITs two year degrees transfer seamlessly to U of Alberta. I'm sure SAITs do to at U of Calgary.